Nicki Minaj Slams Migrant Child Detention Centers: ‘I Came to This Country as an Illegal Immigrant’

Nicki Minaj has joined the outcry of celebrities horrified by the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their asylum-seeking parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Instagram on Thursday (June 21), the rapper revealed that she herself came to the U.S. as an "illegal immigrant" when she was just a toddler.

"I came to this country as an illegal immigrant at 5 years old," she wrote. "I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place and having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5."

The artist added how "scary" the policy is and pleaded for immediate change.

"Please stop this," Minaj said. "Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now? Not knowing if their parents are dead or alive, if they’ll ever see them again..."

Over the past two months, thousands of children of undocumented immigrants have been detained across a number of U.S.-Mexico border detention facilities as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. Various media reports have revealed shocking inhumane conditions and abuse in some of the detention centers, with children in one center reportedly being contained in cages.

On Wednesday (June 20), following intense national backlash, Trump signed an executive order ending his policy of separating children from their families at the border. Families, including children, will now be detained together. It's unclear, however, if the children who have already been separated will be reunited with their families.